I read pretty much anything, from fantasy (City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett) to romance (Bared to You by Sylvia Day) to classics (Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad). The only genres I don't read are self-help and comic books/graphic novels.

The author gifted me with a copy of this book. That has not compromised my ability to write an honest and critical review of this book.

2/2 - At the end of chapter two and I already feel like committing bloody violence. I was hoping, but knew it wasn't going to happen due to her earlier attempt to placate Phil, that Ella would pick up that damn broomstick and ram it down his throat. That kind of man, just makes me so angry I want to hit something IRL.I liked the little nod to the MasterCard ads, it got a half smile out of me (that's when one side of your face lifts, but not the other). "...worshipping Kleenex like Gollum coveting the One Ring.", that was worth a two-sided smile. "Van Helsing with a cross of cucumbers come to slay Dracula with my holy avocados." that was a LOL.

A half hour later - That's one of the reasons I dislike religion, the fact that a book gives you a set of rules to live by and you are expected to uphold them no matter the danger to you or those around you. Ella refused to leave her child-abusing husband Phil because the Bible says you must honour your marriage vows, for better or worse. When contemplating people who follow the Bible to the letter I consider the fact that the Bible was written in a different time to ours and that when they wrote it they didn't take into consideration the many ways in which the world would change over the next 2000 years. Therefore, there should be no shame in 'breaking your marriage vows' in order to save yourself, or your children, from an abusive marriage - all the shame should be on the abuser, not the survivor. I can understand her continuing love for her son, but not Phil, especially since I would be looking to him as at least the partial cause for how Dane turned out. She says she owed Phil her presence, but what about what he owed her? Didn't he owe Ella a marriage free from violence? To be continued...

A couple of hours later - Damn this is scary!! My heart is really pounding and going to bed isn't going to help because it's a really hot night here, so I'm going to have to turn my 'dust-bunny covered ceiling fan on' and I'm a little nervous about what else I'll see up there. After reading the scene with 7-year-old Dane on the ceiling I started getting nightmarish flashes of scenes from The Grudge (the one with Sarah Michelle Gellar in it), which is doing nothing for my pounding heart or anxiety about looking at my bedroom ceiling fan. This might be a nightmare-causing book - I can't wait!. To be continued...

Another chapter later - I'm really starting to hate Ella for what she's not doing for Dane and I completely understand why Dane would believe that she must have hated him. She keeps making excuses for Phil and for why she can't just take Dane and leave and I just want to shake her until her teeth rattle and ask her "wouldn't anything be better than this, better than just sitting back and watching your husband brutalise your son on a daily basis?" I don't blame Dane for haunting Ella and, as long as no other innocent people are harmed, don't really have a problem with it (well, there was the painter who got such a fright he jammed a screw driver into his hand, but maybe that was an anomaly) - revenge is a dish best served cold, dead cold. To be continued...

3/2 - As soon as the woman came in alone, wanting to use the toilet, and there was no mention of her coming back out, I was worried. I actually thought she might dead with a trail of bloody teeth leading to her body and the suspicion that Ella might have been involved somehow - but the door being 'locked' leaving the poor woman to 'poop her pants', I didn't expect that. If that had been me I think I might have hopped onto the edge of the sink and done what I had to there, instead of leaving it so long that everything sort of exploded.

Oh by the way, no nightmares, more's the shame. I was really looking forward to a good creepy-Grudge-boy-on-the-ceiling nightmare to tell you all about this morning. Oh well, I highly doubt the scares are over yet, so there's always tonight to look forward to. To be continued...

An hour later - Damn, it's definite - Dane's injuring/killing innocent bystanders in his tormenting of Ella. Double damn, because I can no longer cheer Dane along in his revenge against a mother who never stood between her son and his father's fists. While I may have sympathy for his reasons for terrorising his mother, there's no excuse for what he did to Talia, the painter or the woman at the library, so I've just lost all sympathy for Dane - he's just an evil serial killer who's continuing his reign of terror despite being dead. To be continued...

Another hour later - What the hell was Ella thinking buying a pet for Dane?!! I hate to think what's going to happen when Phil gets sick of it or Dane doesn't 'mind it' as instructed. Is there going to be a tortured cat? That might be the worst thing Phil has done so far, if that's what happens (which I hope it's not). This could be really, disturbingly bad and I'm a bit scared to go on. To be continued...

After dinner - Chapter 17 ends with Ella saying that she "just watched and prayed". What the flaming hell is praying going to do? Especially when you've been 'praying' since Phil first abused Dane, six years ago. If praying hasn't stopped Phil before, what's it going to do now? It's just another way for Ella to turn a blind eye and say that she wanted to do something to stop Phil but she was too scared for her own life. I'm sorry, but I would place myself in front of my dog if Phil was abusing them, let alone my child - being afraid for my life isn't a consideration when it comes to saving my loved one's life.

Also Dane's constant catch phrase of "The teeth will lead me home." is really starting to frustrate me because I can't figure out what it means. Where is home to Dane? Does he mean back at the house he lived in till he was 17? Or in hell with his mother and father? To be continued...

An hour later - Ella deserves everything Dane does to her!! She's got to be one of the worst mothers I've ever read (obviously there are worse, I just haven't read them yet) and while Dane's attacks are terrifying to read I have absolutely no sympathy for Ella's situation. Dane lived through much worse - she's only been going through it for a few weeks, he lived with it for 13 years. If it weren't for the innocent victims along the way (not sure if Sven's innocent or not yet) I would say to Dane to have at it. To be continued...

Another hour later - What the hell happened to Phil in the four years between Dane's birth and his first actions of abuse to turn him from the responsible (proposed to Ella as soon as he heard she was pregnant), romantic (dashed off to buy her an engagement ring without saying word and got down on one knee when he proposed), happy (he seemed pretty ecstatic when Ella accepted his proposal) man he was? He's said a number of times that he's only doing what his father did to him. Is that it? Is he only copying his father's example in discipline? Meaning that if he hadn't had any children he never would have turned into this nightmare of a man? Was the ticking over of Dane's fourth year like the flicking of a switch for Phil - like a sleeper terrorist just waiting for the right set of circumstances to set their deadly plan into motion?

Oh, and 'Flesh puppet'? That's a great way to describe a possessed person. To be continued...

The same night - FANTASTIC ENDING!!! I didn't get the twist until the last couple of sentences and then when I finally did I was like "That totally tricked me" and had to go back and re-read the last chapter to see if there were any clues - of course there are none, which is probably made easier because 'her' jaw is wired shut. I'm doing everything I can to express how much fun I had reading this without giving away a pretty damn good twist that I don't think others will see coming. That was absolutely a fitting ending for Ella, but I am a little worried about Melissa and Phillip's futures.

This is the best book I've read in ages and it makes me think that some of the five star reviews I've written recently might not really be five stars because they weren't as good as Life after Dane, either that or Life after Dane is a six star book. If you've liked Edward Lorn books before, but haven't read this one, you must try it, it's got everything a seasoned horror reader loves - gore, true horror, ghosts, possession and a spectacular twist. I read a review that mentioned that Lorn's decision to omit any and all swearing left the book with no soul and I have to say I completely disagree. The absence of swearing did absolutely no damage to the story, I hardly even noticed it was missing and in fact thought it was kind of fitting because the bad guy, the one doing the killing, most of the time, had the emotional age of a seven year old and it wouldn't be natural for that character to swear like a sailor. I can't wait to read more of Lorn's work, ASAP.